Measuring Up

A Primer on Web Analytics

Brad Plothow

March 13, 2013

CONTRASTING ANALYTICS TOOLS

Adobe Analytics: The prized product in Adobe’s recent acquisition of Utah-based Omniture was SiteCatalyst, a powerful analytics tool. SiteCatalyst is now the centerpiece in Adobe Analytics, the most powerful and versatile suite of digital data products on the market. This software package is most effective for firms with sophisticated analytics needs.

Google Analytics: In typical Google fashion, Google Analytics has gained widespread popularity because it’s free. In what is essentially a two-horse race between Adobe and Google, the latter’s product is intuitive and adequate for most simple needs and offers more advanced options for a premium.

All the rest: While Adobe and Google are the unquestioned leaders in analytics products, brazen challengers are popping up all the time (this is high technology, after all). Social media have gotten into the game, with Facebook offering some very basic dashboarding for tracking ad campaigns. In April, analytics startup Hotspots.io was acquired by Twitter in an attempt to create an online data dream team. Ultimately, social media will likely play an ever greater role in analytics because these sites are the internet’s largest data troves.